As we have posted, it’s election time here in Mexico, including local elections in San Cristóbal de las Casas. We have already commented on the political aspects of the elections. Another peculiar happening during election time is that the city has become dry, that is, no alcohol.
What was interesting about the unexpected running with the bull on a Chiapas highway was not the excitement, or the rush of running for what we thought was our lives, or a practice session for running with the bulls in Pamplona with my father, or the rare opportunity to run in panic with dozens of Mayan descendants in one moment of shared experience. Rather, it was the structures of authority in place and its comparison to the United States – that wealthy and unenchanting world of reasoned irrationality – a token (as the neo-Marxist Marcuse would say) of advanced (un)civilized progress.